Atlanta Falcons: 5 keys to get to Super Bowl LI
By John Buhler
Win more than one game in the NFC South
This is obvious, but Dan Quinn and his staff have to win more games in the NFC South to have a realistic shot of making the NFC Playoffs en route to Super Bowl LI. Quinn preached to treat every game like it was Super Bowl Sunday in 2015.
While that is great in theory, it in essence devalued how important division games are. It takes more to beat the Carolina Panthers, the New Orleans Saints, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers consistently because of the nature of biannual rivalries.
These are the three teams that Atlanta has to figure out how to beat six times annually. Division games are incredibly tough to win, as all four teams know almost everything about their rivals rosters, coaching tendencies, and mental makeup.
The attention to detail in NFC South games in the first year of the Dan Quinn era in Atlanta was arguably the most disappointing part of the 2015 Atlanta Falcons 8-8 NFL season. The margin for error in NFC South games is razor-thin, so playing from behind like Quinn’s team often did in 2015 will not work in 2016 against the Falcons’ division rivals.
Atlanta will have to finish no worse than 3-3 in the NFC South to have any hopes of making the NFC Playoffs to pull off the organization’s second ever trip to the Super Bowl. Division games mean more and hopefully Quinn and his staff realize this entering the 2016 NFL season. 1-5 isn’t acceptable.
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